US alarmed over possibility of Russia supporting China’s nuclear weapons buildup: Report

The US administration is increasingly alarmed over the possibility that Russia is supporting China’s build-up of nuclear weapons by supplying it with highly enriched uranium, Nikkei Asia reported.

“Their diplomatic support, their political support and to some extent material support for Russia certainly goes against our interests in bringing this war to an end,” Nikkei Asia quoted Antony Blinken during a congressional hearing. Blinken said that China is not providing deadly weapons to Russia. However, he underscored that the two nations are partners. He said, “They talked about a partnership with no limits.” Further, as per the news report, the new area of concern expressed by the Biden administration stems from the nuclear cooperation between Russia and China. At a hearing in March, John Plumb, the assistant secretary of defence who oversees space and nuclear policy, called it “very troubling” to see Russia and China cooperating on this, the report stated further.

According to Blinken, China is not giving Russia any lethal weaponry. Yet he emphasised that the two countries are allies. He said, “They talked about a partnership with no limits.” Also, according to the news article, the Biden administration’s latest area of worry is related to China and Russia’s nuclear cooperation. According to the paper, John Plumb, the assistant secretary of defence in charge of space and nuclear strategy, described Russia and China’s cooperation on this as “extremely disturbing” at a hearing in March.

Plumb said, “They may have talking points around it, but there’s no getting around the fact that breeder reactors are plutonium, and plutonium is for weapons.”
He spoke about the risk that Russia’s provision of enriched uranium could result in China expanding its nuclear arsenal.
Senior State Department official of Nikkei Asia said, “Responsible nuclear states should not be feeding into China’s nuclear programs with fissile material without understanding the escalatory potential, without understanding the destabilizing nature, without understanding the consequences of that transfer.”
The US official said Washington has made little to no progress in establishing a dialogue with China over nuclear capabilities and urged Beijing to offer greater transparency on its nuclear programs, as per the news report.

In US Congress, House Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Representative Mike Turner and two other senior Republicans sent a letter to the White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. They warned him that Russia and China’s “nuclear cooperation goes much farther than just civilian projects.”
The US representatives in the letter recommended that the Biden administration should make use of all tools at its disposal to stop Russia’s state-owned nuclear company Rosatom and China’s “dangerous cooperation”, as per the Nikkei Asia report.
China is reportedly increasing its nuclear capabilities, according to the US government. The US Department of Defense predicted that China will treble its arsenal to 1,500 nuclear weapons by 2035 in an annual study published in November of last year.

Jacob Stokes, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security think tank said that the constraint on China’s arsenal has been a lack of fissile material to create new weapons, as per the news report.
Stokes further said, “Russian shipments provide China with uranium that, with additional processing, could go into new nuclear warheads, thereby alleviating that constraint.”

During a recent trip to Moscow, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. A joint statement was issued by the two leaders regarding expanding their comprehensive partnership and strategic collaboration.
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin also issued a joint statement outlining their plans for economic cooperation with each other until 2030.